Last month, senior Nyssa Kansal was highlighted in a Los Altos Town Crier story about her research in microplastics, which she has studied for the last three years, traveling as far away as Kenya to share and discuss her work. Kansal took an interest in these practically invisible, potentially harmful particles while volunteering at local farms as a ninth grader, becoming curious about the contents of their soil. She had also been examining microplastics in a lab at Stanford University. Her research began in earnest the following year, when she placed an array of pots in her backyard.

“Microplastics are definitely a huge problem, and it’s something that should really be paid attention to because it’s so close to our food,” Kansal told the Town Crier.

Kansal later published a paper on her findings in the National High School Journal of Science, and visited Kenya last summer to work at a farm run by local women, where she showed farm workers how to test plant fertilizer for key nutrients.

Los Altos Town Crier has the full story.